The cells divided rapidly in vitro and differentiated into fat, muscle, cartilage, and bone cell lines, according to Mayana Zatz, DSc, of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, and colleagues.

"These important features imply that human tube mesenchymal stem cells represent a cell population that can be rapidly expanded for potential clinical applications," they wrote online in the Journal of Translational Medicine.

More importantly, they said, they do not raise the ethical issue associated with embryonic stem cells.

Previous studies have shown that mesenchymal stem cells taken from umbilical cords, dental pulp, adipose tissue, and menstrual blood, which are all biological discards, can differentiate into fat, muscle, cartilage, and bone, they said.

Dr. Zatz and colleagues set out to explore the differentiation potential of stem cells obtained from six fallopian tubes discarded after a hysterectomy or from tubal ligation and resection samples.

The tubes came from fertile women ages 35 to 53 who had not undergone hormone treatment for at least three months before surgery.

The researchers found that the mesenchymal stem cells were easily isolated from the tubes and expanded well in vitro.

The cells were able to differentiate with no signs of chromosomal abnormalities through successive generations.

Flow cytometry revealed high expression of CD44, a protein that "is considered a marker of mesenchymal stem cells and has been shown to be critical for the recruitment of [the cells] into wound sites for tissue regeneration," and CD29, "an integrin involved in cell adhesion," the researchers said.

The high levels of expression of these and other mesenchymal stem cell markers, "together with the multilineage differentiation results, confirmed the mesenchymal nature of human fallopian tube stem cells," they said.

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